Falcons
by Lore55
Summary: She fell out of the sky from a world on fire, barely escaping with her life. Now she will have to adapt to life as a civilian, no body special, while mourning in the silence of her own nightmares. If only no one else had fallen as well.
1. Chapter 1

_Get to the sky, run, fly, to the sky, go go go. The sky is safe._

 _Her mother screamed in her ear, her father pushed her back, her brothers clung to her limbs, her sisters her heart._

 _The sky was safe. The sky was death._

 _Swarms erupted through the dark, fire ignited the clouds. Metal screamed, engines roared, wires shrieked along with the people they were attached to._

 _The sky fell. Building collapsed. Death dampened the air._

 _She fell from the sky and into the dark._

And into the dark did she wake.

She lay utterly still, hardly daring breath. Hard earth was packed beneath her, cushioned only by grass and thin cloth.

Very slowly she brought air, unpolluted, so clean it burned, into her lungs. She sat up, tucking her legs underneath her before reaching for the flap of the tent and pulling it open. Around her two others stirred, Natsuki and Tsukiko, twins shifting in their sleep thanks to her.

Moonlight fell past the edge of the tent, accompanied by the warmer glow of the camp fire. When she slid out, bare feet breaking stalks of grass that had done their best to grow, only to meet their fate at the careless steps of a bipedal being.

"You can't sleep," Yuzuki observed. The old woman sat by the fire, poking it with a stick to keep it alive. On the other side from her was her ever silent companion, Takashi. The girl nodded, letting the cloth fall shut behind her again. The language was still foreign to her, her accent still terrible.

"What troubles you?" she questioned, motioning for the younger girl to find her side. She did so, sitting on the log and turning for the fire.

"Dreams," she said quietly. "Dreams, again, dreams."

Yuzuki asked, "What do you dream about?"

The girl replied, "The sky burns."

Across the fire Takashi grimaced.

"You have many troubles, Sora," Yuzuki informed her, turning half blind eyes that were far too sharp for reason upon the younger girl. She withheld a grimace. Sora, they called her. The child from the sky. That was not her name, but her was so foreign what else could she do? So she bowed her head and agreed quietly.

"If you continue to lose sleep, it may be best for you to take something before you lay down," she advised. Before the words even left her mouth completely Sora was shaking her head.

"I would rather not." Nightmares and sleep deprivation were nothing new for her. She would be fine, they came in spurts. This one would end eventually, just as all the others had in the past. All there was to do was wait it out.

Fear she had lived with for a long time. For as long as she could remember. She could live with unfounded fear now.

Yuzuki didn't say anything more, instead looking back to the twisting flames. Sora wondered if that was how she had gotten so blind so quickly. She looked up at the sky, the place from which she fell, and couldn't help smiling. She hadn't seen a sky so clear in all her life, never seen so many stars from when she stood upon the ground.

The clearing that the camp was set in was wide, offering a perfect view through the lack of trees. Not there were many to begin with in this land, it seemed to be nothing but flat grasslands, scattered with the flowers.

The fields seemed to be the place where the group, the Umino, made their lives. They travelled across the planes and through the trees, travelling as a caravan that took various goods from the sea across the country. So far Sora hadn't seen any civilization but she had been assured that they would get there some day, probably soon if Natsuki was to be believed.

The family, or tribe, or whatever they were rose and fell with the sun, all except Yuzuki, who seemed more inclined to sleep in the day, and Takashi, who never seemed to sleep period.

Not that Sora was really someone to talk. It had once been that work and exhaustion drove her to sleep the instant the opportunity presented itself. Now she did such light labor she had more energy than she knew what to do with, which didn't help anything with her nightmares.

The Umino were strange. There was something about them, she didn't know what, that just seemed off. Different from what she had experienced before. They reminded her of power chords, though she hadn't the slightest idea why. There was an energy in them that she was unfamiliar with, one that she could no more hear than see but knew somehow that it was there.

Power cords.

The thought was, for some reason, hilarious.

The girl fell back against the grass, her feet still elevated on the log. Her attention all went to the sky and what was beyond it, the glimpses she had been allowed.

"Are you waiting for it to burn?" Yuzuki asked, drawing Sora's eyes back to her crinkled face.

Sora shook her head. "No."

She spoke the truth. She knew the Dorvix. They would not follow someone as insignificant as she was when they had their hands now full taking apart her home. Brick by brick, corpse by corpse, chain link and cuff.

They wouldn't come here for some years. They would, eventually. No matter where she went eventually they would arrive there, before or after she was dead.

Her eyes darted to the tent where her pack lay, stuffed with metal and cloth, uniform and weapon.

If they did arrive early, she wouldn't let them take this world without a fight.

Yuzuki asked, "What burnt the sky."

Sora couldn't think of reply. So she shrugged her shoulders upwards, shifting the strange clothes that she had been lent by the Umino when they had found her in the crater, broken into pieces, singed at the edges, lost from all that there was.

She owed them a lot, she knew. They had given her a place to sleep and food to eat. They had nursed her from shattered soul and broken bone into merely a fractured soul. She would do what she could to repay them.

When a star shot across the sky her heart squeezed and her muscles tensed until it winked out of existence, just a meteor igniting in the atmosphere before it burned away into nothing.

She could remember the first time she had seen the world from that high up. The curve of the earth, the haze of the weather, lightning flashing in a storm a hundred miles away. It had been the most beautiful thing she ever thought she would see. The sky, for her, was freedom.

Now it was a reminder of everything she no longer had.

Maybe she was a sadist because she started to count the starts. One, two, three, four, five, ten, fifteen, twenty five. Ursa Major.

The girl's heart froze in her chest.

Those were the same constellation she had learned from her father. The same stars. But this was not the same world.

It was impossible.

This could not be her world. The air was to clean, the sunsets to blue. It wasn't possible, even if the Umino did turn out to be human! The skies weren't as bright, the air wasn't as clean, the stars could not be the same.

Confusion and fear twisted deep inside her, nearly knocking the girl into a tail spin of thought in a dizzying array of possibilities and lack of understanding.

It couldn't be.

Could it?

* * *

"Are you ready?" Liv asked, twirling the bracelet that matched her name around one finger. Lightning bolts darted around the florescent outside, rolling across the surface like they were actually real, flicking through the night and lighting darkened clouds.

Nellie kicked at the metal floor beneath them, her hands gripping the seat underneath her tightly. She hated not being in control, everyone knew it. Planes, trains, and automobiles she wasn't driving were her worse nightmares.

"Yeah," she replied, "What about you, Echo?"

Eleanor was leaning on the back door of the plane, ignoring the tremors that high speeds shot across the surface and sent shaking inside. Her suit held onto her, fitting her form with armor and weaponry, just in case. The familiar weight of micro cables and hand crafted wings was a comfort, one she had spent year in.

"What about me? Of course I am," she dismissed with a wave and an eye roll. With her other hand she adjusted the strap of her goggles and checked against the clasps of her low mask. She had felt the shift in the plane that meant that they had arrived at the drop point, making her tense with excitement and fear. Adrenaline began its creeping drop into her blood.

This was her thirty fourth drop, a simple scouting run over the Badlands, searching for people, for survivors. There are other planes with them, cloaked in clouds and tech. It's only them, the Storm Riders, the Falcons, that can get close enough to the surface to see catch them. There's no time to land, cables for rescue are too risky. So they are deployed to search, like they always are and always will be.

Over the speakers came their pilot, Lala, Labangalata, best in the Storm. Ciel has the best team, or it did, back where there were a full ten of them. Now only Eleanor, Lala, Leon and Casey were all that was left. Now they had green newbies that were bound to get them killed. Nellie, Liv, Louis, Charlotte, Fred, Todd, and Tom. This was their third real drop, the first one that had even the slightest chance of combat.

Eleanor was never very fond of the higher ups, but this was pushing it.

'Someone has to train them.' She could hear the captain, Andre, telling her again, his teeth flashing in a grimaces smile that made her nervous. Andre was a cold hearted bastard who, while he couldn't beat her in a fight, he could sure as hell clip her wings.

In her spacing she had missed Lala telling them that they were dropping. As such when the door opened she went plummeting unprompted into the cold air. She didn't scream or trash. The second wind hit her and gravity pulled her body took over, twisting her into formation.

She's the leader, she always is. Experience and ability put her in front even if Leon outranks her. Without looking she knows the he and Casey had flanked her. Without explanations she knows the other six have faltered. Leon is supposed to take point, not her. Yet this was their first lesson. You don't always go by the book.

They were going faster than the rookies, at a speed other teams, instructors, sane people, name reckless. Insane.

That fit the Falcons pretty well.

All it takes a shift of weight for her and the other two to slow enough the others, panicking over the coms, can catch up. She doesn't want them dying yet. They're her responsibility.

And really, Raptors are getting scarce these days.

The city is identical to the last one they searched. Skeletal buildings hide corpses. Streets are torn, cars are silent, concrete forms barriers that would never help to protect anyone, not anymore. It's not the end of the world that was predicted by most. It wasn't caused by themselves, Yellowstone had yet to erupt, the dead were still as lifeless as ever.

It came from the sky. An idea, a theory, one very few took seriously.

The Dorvix were strong, ruthless, the galaxies scourge and terror. They had toppled empires, ripped peace out by the roots and torn apart olive branches before eating the dove that carried them.

There was just one thing that they hadn't considered when they'd come to this planet of primitive apes and stone aged technology. It was something the Martians could have told them, something locals would have said if asked. It was simple, really.

Humans are very good at war.

When nuclear weapons proved useless an counterproductive they switched tactics, started inventing, took inspiration from works of fictions that had been proven fact. Training began, soldiers were recruited. In face of an enemy greater than all of them age old rivalries had been set aside, resources had been pooled and for the first time since Eden humanity was truly united.

The Dorvix were pushed back.

That didn't mean they gave up.

It didn't mean millions weren't dead.

It just meant that when they went, humans weren't going without a fight.

When she dropped past the very tips of the tallest sky scrapers she can feel the worry in her new followers. Around them the other teams, Hawks, Owls, and Kites have already spread their wings.

The Falcons darted lower, past where the wind currents can carry them safely.

Only when ten stories are left does she show mercy. It's a fluid front flip, leather straps slide around her wrists. She yanked her arms vertically.

Wind slammed into her with jarring force, pushing her straight through the broken city.

* * *

When the sun rose Sora had more sleep, if only a few hours, under the vigilance of Yuzuki and Takashi. She still thought that he should sleep more often.

Tents were packed up, food was stocked into wagons and horses were hitched. Leather and metal were clinched around them in harnesses before being locked onto wagons without covers. The Umino were like chronic tanners, none of them showing any interest in sunscreen. Sora wished she could say the same but if she stays out long enough even her normally tan skin will crack and peel.

Sora did what she could to help them get everything packed into the appropriate boxes and stack those into the needed carts. Most of the cargo was personal; tents, food, water, clothes, and miscellaneous other items for each individual. The rest was various medicines, ointments and what seemed to be vaccines. All of it was very primitive. Not in the sense that they were in the Stone Age, but in the sense that it was all very old and there appeared to be no technology she could locate.

That wouldn't work in her favor later on but there was nothing she could do.

As long as the sun shone and the wind blew she would at least be okay.


	2. Chapter 2

**Llyrica: Thank you! I hope you like it.**

 **Nyasararu: Thank you. You have good foreshadowing skills.**

* * *

Lala liked people. People were important, she had fought for them and done her best to make life worth living for many.

These people she wouldn't be doing any favors for.

There was a reason Lala had never lived in a small town. That reason was simple. The people were all terrible, racist, drug using people with no understanding of privacy. In a big city you don't have to worry about your neighbors watching your every move with any intention other than flat out murder. In big cities no one looks at you twice.

In big cities you aren't sucked into the rumor mill for anything shy of shooting your cheating husband.

Unlike this town. No, no, in this town (one that lacked basic wiring, forget wifi) she was the center of attention.

Considering it was vanilla valley and she was very much Indian it wasn't hard to see why. That didn't mean she liked it, that didn't mean she didn't wish that some bus would roll through at least a group of people there to trade would show up and let her follow them out of the place.

Once she had the supplies for it she was leaving herself but it would be better if she wasn't going alone. Safety in numbers and all that.

It didn't appear that anyone was going to show up any time soon though, so she hoarded food that would last, did odd jobs for money and lived in the cheapest place she could find without it being unsanitary.

Never let it be said Labangalata Sabha couldn't take care of herself.

Asthma disagreed with that statement.

She wasn't sure if it was luck or a curse that the old man sent a puff of smoke right into her face when she walked past him with the platter of food balanced on a single hand. The restaurant supposedly had a no smoking policy, but laws didn't seem to be everyone's greatest concern. Her eyes stung with the smoke and she made the mistake of inhaling.

For a few minutes it seemed like she would be fine, like she might just cough it off like a normal person.

Except the coughing didn't stop.

She could remember when she was kid, the first time it happened it had been the time her mother was working in a bar and her father kept them partially supported under the eye of his wife. Some man had seen fit to shove a cigarette into her mouth and make her breath in, drunk to the point that a tortured child was amusing.

It wasn't so amusing when she was sent to emergency room and he was sued.

It was so funny eighteen years later when her knees struck the ground and her hand wrapped around her neck, breath refusing to come. Dishes shattered, her employer shouted profanities and threats. The companion of the smoker lifted off his seat and was at her side in an instant, one hand on her elbow. She hadn't even noticed he was there before.

Panicked she gestured towards the cubby by the front door where employees kept their bags, making the universal sign for an inhaler with her other hands. Her chest hurt. Fear blackened the edges of her vision.

The pressure on her elbow vanished. Lala tried placing her hands on her head and forcing her chest to expand to invite air in. It didn't really work.

What did work was the tube that was shoved in her face a few seconds later. She grabbed it, pushing the button and inhaling to the best of her ability, one, twice, thrice, before the passage opened and she was left gasping, able to breath, on the floor.

"Are you alright?" the man asked, drawing her eyes up to him. What she found was surprise. Very light hair stood shocked on the top of his head, a sharp contrast to the dark skin of his face. It took her a second to find her voice, for a few different reasons.

"Yeah," she managed, clearing her throat and looking away. "Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks."

Her accent was still terrible, she noted by the odd look on his face. She was just lucky that she had already had an inkling of the language they spoke here. She was fluent in twelve different languages, the one that was used here was less fluent and more Occasional Phrases Translate Well.

The woman stood up, brushing off the long skirt she had been stuffed into before she squared her shoulders and spun around, ignoring the dizziness that temporarily blinded her as she stormed towards the smoker. He stared up at her, slack jawed, when she ripped the pipe out of his mouth and dumped the hope plant matter on his lap, pointing to the sign on the window.

"No smoking!" she shouted, loud enough for all to hear, "You inconsiderate ass! Some people don't have lungs for that. You could have killed me!"

She wanted to kill him.

When the helpful strangers hand closed around her arm the grip was steel, contrary to his formerly careful hold.

"I'm going to have to ask you not to threaten my client," he said carefully.

Lala gave him an irritated look. "I'm not threatening anyone. I'm stating a fact. If he never learned to read it's not my fault."

Not that she was very good at that just yet, mind you, but she was learning.

"I apologize," the smoker said, startling the irate pilot. Lala looked down at him, confusion clouding her face before it smoothed. An apology was not what she was expecting. From the look of the third member of their parties face it wasn't what the young man also at the table expected either. They looked very much alike. Probably relatives. Father and son she would guess.

"Ah, it's alright. You just shouldn't do that. It's rude," she chided.

The man seemed amused by her. She had the inexplicable urge to tear the smile off his face. There was something wrong with it.

"Yes," he agreed, reaching out to lay a hand on her knee, "Let me make it up to you. I'm sure we can come to an understanding."

Lala's eyes narrowed.

"If that understanding means you move your hand before you lose it, sure."

She swore the man pouted. It sent shivers down her spine, all of disgust.

"I'm only trying to be nice. I can offer you compensation for any work you miss."

Lala could hardly believe her ears. If her skin was lighter it would have been cherry red. As it was it was still and angry shed of brick red.

"I am not a prostitute you disgusting piece of-!" she cut herself off, when she knew it wasn't going to do anything. This man had the same look of her father's associates who at first assumed she worked for him, usually in IT. They would never stop giving her patronizing smiles, dismissive snaps or disgraceful leers.

Instead she fumed, gripping the pipe like a weapon.

It wouldn't do her much good, she knew. Elle, Leon and Casey were the fighters. She was the pilot, the scout, and the doctor. She still wanted to drive it into his shining eyes.

Instead she slammed it into the wood of the table and snapped a few insults at him in her native language before she rounded on her heel and went to go pick up the broken plates a bowls. Behind her she could hear the man scolding his apparent guard for not protecting him more.

A simple reply of 'you were never in danger' set her blood back to boiling.

The sooner she got out of there the better.

* * *

The only train to enter the town in the three months since she had stumbled there out of her fallen plane, singed around the edges but unharmed, happened to be owned by the most pretentious man she had met since leaving New York.

Needless to say Lala wasn't very happy. She couldn't, wouldn't, ask to join it. It would go against her pride and her desire to stay away from the perverse dog spawn. So instead she watched from the side as the wagons were loaded with supplies.

Around the wagon horses counted against the dirt restlessly while guards walked around, all of them visibly armed to the teeth. Curiously enough most of them looked like her as far as skin tone went. Darker too, even. African decent? Jamaican? She couldn't get a read of their facial features enough to tell.

Not that it mattered, they were leaving soon and it was none of her business where they went.

It was away from that little town though, and she desperately wanted to get away from there. She wasn't desperate enough to join the caravan though. She doubted she ever would be.

One thing was for sure, she was leaving at the end of the month no matter what else was going on. On her own or with someone else.

The latter seemed more probable.

"Excuse me?"

The soft voice drew her attention away from bitterness and plots, up to the boy that had been at the side of the pervert during their confrontation. Lala tilted her head, brow quirked.

"Ah?" she prompted. Then, remembering some manners, gestured to the patch of grass beside her.

He looked a little confused before realizing what she was trying to get him to do and lowering himself to the ground.

"I, ah, I wanted to say that I'm sorry about my father's behavior. It wasn't very respectful," he began. Lala didn't think she'd ever seen anyone look more awkward for an apology. It was pretty obvious he wasn't used to it.

With unscarred skin and clothes that looked like silk she wasn't surprised at all. He had probably never had to say sorry for much of anything before in his life.

"You shouldn't be apologizing," she told him, "But thank you. It's your dad that needs to be doing it. You're not obligated or responsible for his behavior."

The boy nodded, looking away. Lala sighed. He couldn't be older than sixteen and he was trying to say sorry for someone at least twice his age. She felt bad for the kid.

"Is there any way for me to make it up to you?" he asked after a few minutes.

Her mouth was open to say 'no' before she paused. Then, slowly, she nodded.

"Do you have a map of the country?" she asked, "I'd like to know where I'm going when I leave here."

The boy stared at her in surprise before he nodded and stood back up.

"Wait here, please," he requested, disappearing into the shifting bodies of workers, all of them diligently packing under the watchful eyes of their leader. She still didn't know any of their names. She should probably ask that at some point.

The woman almost laughed. Why would she do that? It wasn't like she was seeing any of them ever again.

The boy came back, holding a rolled up piece of paper in one hand.

"Here," he held it out to her, "It has all the mahor cities, rivers and mountain on it."

Lala accepted the paper, giving the boy a genuine smile that drew a light pink to his already pale cheeks.

"Thank you," she said earnestly, tucking it away into the folds of her clothes.

The boy nodded. His mouth was opened to say something else when a shout of 'Daisuke!' came from the largest wagon, the only one with hard topped cover. The boy cringed.

"I'm sorry. I have to go."

Lala nodded, making a shooing motion with her hands.

"Get going, kid. I'll see you again, eventually."

"You will?" he looked so hopeful the woman had to smile again.

"Yeah, probably," she said, feeling bad for the boy, Daisuke.

He was way too young for her.


End file.
